Pittsburg, PA, attorney Jagan Nicholas Ranjan has been confirmed by the US Senate as a federal judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Ranjan, 41, whose parents are from India, is currently a partner in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, offices of K&L Gates, where he works on commercial and appellate litigation. He is filling a seat that was vacated in 2016. President Donald Trump nominated Ranjan on July 24, 2018. He underwent a Senate Judiciary hearing Nov. 13, 2018, along with three other jurists.
During the judiciary hearing, Ranjan joined the three other nominees who stated they could not comment on how they would rule on President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
Rajan’s term is expected to begin this August. He was deemed “well-qualified” for the post by the American Bar Association.
The Vetting Room Web site noted that Ranjan has been critical of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who — he believes — has made decisions based on political, rather than judicial factors.
Ranjan has characterized Thomas’s 1991 confirmation hearing — at which attorney Anita Hill testified that she was sexually harassed by the nominee — as “a racist manhunt for Thomas by fiendish political lynchers.” He nevertheless has stated that Thomas’s decisions are “unreasoned, bitterly partisan, and grossly propagandized,” as reported by the Vetting Room, which nonetheless predicted Ranjan would sail through to confirmation.
Ranjan was born in Lancaster, OH and graduated summa cum laude from Grove City College in 2000. He then attended the University of Michigan Law School.
After graduating from law school, Ranjan spent a year at the Office of the Ohio Solicitor General and then clerked for Judge Deborah Cook on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then joined the Pittsburgh Office of K&L Gates as an Associate.
